Miguel Pajares, an elderly Spanish priest, could be treated with US
experimental drug ZMapp being used on two infected American aid workers, but
US says serum not yet proven effective

The first European victim of the West African Ebola outbreak arrived in Spain on Thursday morning and was rushed to a Madrid hospital, officials said, as hopes rose that a US experimental vaccine could soon be available for wider treatment.

Miguel Pajares, 75, who was said to be in a stable condition, was helping to treat Ebola patients in the Liberian capital Monrovia when he tested positive for the deadly virus earlier this week.

He was swiftly flown to Spain in a medically equipped Airbus 310 along with a colleague, Juliana Bohi, a nun from Equatorial Guinea with Spanish nationality who is to be retested for the disease after a negative result in Liberia.

Their evacuation came as Liberia and Sierra Leone imposed states of emergency over the outbreak, which has killed almost 1000 people and spread fear through much of West Africa. In Liberia, the dead lay in the streets, many of those infected regarding Ebola treatment units as death traps. Sierra Leone sent troops to guard hospitals and clinics handling Ebola cases.

Spain said the arrival of an Ebola patient in the country presented minimal risk to public health. The pair landed amid high security at a military air base near the capital and were transferred into ambulances on stretchers enclosed in transparent tents, pushed by medical staff wearing protective suits. They were then taken to La Paz hospital accompanied by a police escort.

There they were being kept in isolation at the Carlos III centre, which has cleared out the entire six floor for the two patients. The priest, who has spent five decades working as a missionary in Liberia, will be treated by only two medical professionals in an effort to contain the virus.

Paramedics wearing protective suits as they mov Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares, who is infected with Ebola, into an ambulance upon his arrival at Spanish Air Force base in Torrejon de Ardoz (EPA)

"The patients have arrived well, though a little disoriented," Javier Rodriguez, a Madrid health official, told a news conference.

The hospital now faces the grave and delicate task of handling the first Ebola case ever to be treated in Spain. The disease has no known cure and is fatal in more than half of all cases.

Ebola, which is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, causes a severe fever and, in the worst cases, bleeding from the eyes, mouth and ears.

But health officials were upbeat about Father Pajares's prognosis, noting that he did not have a fever and that neither he nor Sister Bohi were bleeding.

Rafael Perez-Santamarina, the hospital director, said initial medical checks showed the priest was in stable condition and the nun was in good condition.

Sister Bohi would be released if she tested negative again in Madrid, officials said.

Antonio Alemany, director-general of primary healthcare in Madrid, said that for now the priest was being kept hydrated but that if an experimental treatment currently being used in the United States on two Americans diagnosed with Ebola proved to be effective, then Spain would request to use it.

"We do not know of the scientific evidence, the scientific basis, the results that this serum can provide," he told reporters. "Obviously, if the serum is effective then the Spanish government will make contact to be able to use this treatment."

The two US aid workers, who like Father Pajares were infected while taking care of patients in Monrovia, have shown signs of improvement after being treated with a drug known as ZMapp.

The drug is hard to produce on a large scale, and its use in America has prompted controversy as it has not been made available to African victims who face a far inferior level of healthcare.

In Nigeria, which has just seen its second death from the disease, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said he was in contact with the US Centre for Disease Control on the possibility of getting drugs from them.

"I said we are getting reports that this experimental drug seems to be useful. Is it also possible that we can have access for our people presently being treated and under incubation?" he said on Wednesday.

But Barack Obama said it was too soon to send drugs to West Africa. The US president said on Wednesday that it wasn't yet clear whether the treatment was helpful, urging officials instead to focus on creating a "strong public infrastructure".